PTC Oxidation of Alcohols: Design of Experiments

Factorial design approach helps in better experimentation of the process. This approach was used in the phase transfer catalytic oxidation of n-amyl alcohol and n-hexanol by potassium permanganate under heterogeneous conditions. Tricapryl methyl ammonium chloride (Aliquat 336) was used as the phase transfer catalyst. A baffled batch reactor was used for the studies. The rate of oxidation/reaction was determined by changing the concentration of alcohol, concentration of the catalyst and temperature. Two values, a high and low of these parameters/factors were fixed which entails to a 2 3 factorial design approach. This leads to eight treatment combinations of the experiments. These treatment combinations include main effects of the factors/parameters (concentration of alcohol, concentration of catalyst, temperature) and the interaction effects among these factors. For both the systems, the rate of oxidation was found to be dependent on the main effects. A regression model was fit and the response surface is plotted.